Best Bake Sale (2009)

Bake for Hope

There is nothing quite like the feel-good moment of biting into a homemade cupcake, unless it's knowing your sugar rush went to a worthy cause. Bake for Hope organizes weeklong bake sales, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to breast cancer charities. The Phoenix chapter, with only two months of organization this year, sponsored seven sales and raised more than $3,000, catapulting itself to the top slot for sales nationwide. Impressive, considering most items sold for a buck. During this year's local sales — held the week before Mother's Day — we scarfed up "Elvis" cupcakes (peanut butter/chocolate/banana), Bundt cakes, savory herb biscuits, gourmet brownies, and every flavor of cookie imaginable. As the local organizer of Bake for Hope, Julie Zagars, tells buyers, "If it's for charity, that removes all the calories."